The coronavirus positive case numbers continue to be promising, and Gov. Tate Reeves is urging Mississippians to continue on that path, noting that 70 of the 82 counties in the state are seeing a decline in the number of positive tests.
“We continue to see positive, favorable movement in our coronavirus numbers, and the way we ought to approach this is that what we are doing is working, but now is the time to redouble our efforts,” he said. “What we’re seeing in terms of new cases is encouraging news.
It is encouraging because our strategies of wearing masks, of social distancing, of not going into large groups, those things work. That is what we are learning more than anything over the last six to eight weeks. ... If we will do the little things, it can make a huge difference.”
Mississippi had a total of 612 new cases Thursday for a total of 69,986 since mid-March, along with 22 new deaths reported, reaching a total of 2,011. Since Monday, the highest number of positive cases in a day was Wednesday with 1,081, but Thursday’s numbers mark the second day this week with around 600 cases.
“Now we have rolled over a little bit, and now is the time to really crush it; to do everything we can to really minimize the community spread,” he said.
The continually high number of hospitalizations and deaths, according to Reeves, comes from the fact that hospitalizations and deaths lag behind positive cases. The governor noted that the average stay in intensive care can be anywhere between three and four weeks before the patient either recovers or dies.
“The people being put in the hospital today probably contracted the virus a week, 10 days, maybe two weeks ago,” he said. “The people who are sadly passing away from this disease in many cases actually got the virus four, five or six weeks ago. We know the average stay in an ICU bed is between 21 and 25 days.”
Reeves said that if the state can continue to keep transmission down, outbreaks in long-term care facilities and schools will fall as well because most cases within those facilities come from the outside.
“If we can minimize the community spread, then we can significantly reduce the risk in places like nursing homes. We can significantly reduce the risk in places like schools,” he said. “Many of the cases we see in those places, it wasn’t because the first person got it while in those facilities. It was because they got it in the community.
“If we are going to be successful in keeping our kids in the classroom — and I really believe we will be able to do so — the best way to do that is to drive down community spread.”
He also mentioned incoming guidelines for extracurricular activities and sports, but did not give details.
“As I have said for many days on end, I believe we can play sports. I believe we can do it in a safe way, and the way to do that is by limiting crowd size,” he said, adding that the guidelines would affect public and private schools.
“We’ve already made some pronouncements as it relates to youth sports like baseball, soccer, etc. but now we are going to do the same thing as it relates to extracurricular activities in our K through 12 schools.”
“Our goal is to protect everyone in the state, and the way you do that is by limiting crowd size by ensuring people are socially distancing and also by making sure that people are wearing masks,” he said.
Reeves named a list of six problem counties, and while Pike County was not on the list, it continues to be the center of the outbreak in Southwest Mississippi, gaining nine new cases for a total of 960.
Lincoln County has about 100 fewer cases thand Pike County. Lincoln added three cases for a total of 849 reported Thursday.
Amite County went up two cases for a total of 242, Franklin County went up by six cases for a total of 137, Lawrence County rose by three cases for a total of 332, Walthall County added eight cases for a total of 519 and Wilkinson County added seven cases for a total of 227 all as of Thursday.
Walthall and Wilkinson each added a new death for a total of 22 and 14 respectively.
